1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to manual surgical knives and more particularly to a knife having a blade guide for cutting skin "flaps".
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
A mastectomy operation requires a cutting of the outer skin in such a manner that the anatomy or body matter beneath the skin is accessible to the surgeon. After completion of the operation, the skin is returned in place and rejoined. It is for the mastectomy required that the thickness of the flap be tapered such that the smaller thickness is at the outer end of the flap and the larger thickness is at the base of the flap which remains attached to the skin surface. Flaps cut in this manner provide proper nourishment to the skin during the operating and healing period to minimize skin necrosis. A prior device has utilized an elongated blade guides having a transverse dimension approximately equal to the knife blade transverse dimension thus making the blade attitude, or attack angle, and uniformity of cut difficult to visually perceive. Further, such a device has not been readily adaptable to manual cutting and hence the blade has been power driven. As a result, the control of the cutting action has been seriously diminished due to inherent loss of control in power driven equipment. Further, the bulk of this power driven instrument, the power cables and handle construction of such instrument obstruct freedom of surgical operation.